Air Force missile crew falls asleep with launch codes

Published 6:28 pm Thursday, July 24, 2008

WASHINGTON — Three ballistic missile crew members in North Dakota fell asleep while holding classified launch code devices this month, triggering an investigation by military and National Security Agency experts, the Air Force said Thursday.

The probe found that the missile launch codes were not compromised, but the incident comes on the heels of a series of missteps by the Air Force that had already put the service under intense scrutiny.

“This was just a procedural violation that we investigated,” said Air Force Col. Dewey Ford, a spokesman at Patterson Air Force Base in Colorado. “We determined that there was no compromise.”

The incident was serious enough, however, to prompt an investigation by the 91st Missile Wing, in conjunction with codes experts at the 20th Air Force, U.S. Strategic Command and the National Security Agency.

Ford and other Air Force officials said the Minot Air Force-based crew had code devices that were no longer usable, since new codes had been installed in the missiles.

The three crew members, who are in the 91st Missile Wing, were in the missile alert facility about 70 miles from Minot. That facility includes crew rest areas and sits above the underground control center where the actual keys can be turned to launch the ballistic missiles.

Officials said the three officers were behind locked doors and had with them the old code components, which are large classified devices that allow the crew to communicate with the missiles. Launch codes are part of the component.

“They were awaiting to get back to base and they fell asleep,” Ford said.

The investigation concluded that the codes had remained secured in their containers, which have combination locks that can only be opened by the crew. The containers remained with the crew at all time.